Serving migrants
Extract (pages 324-325) of Mgr Olivier de Berranger, Alfred Ancel, a man for the Gospel, 1898-1984, Centurion, 1988.
"I think I gradually acquired a certain international awareness and a certain sense of the Catholicity of the Church, because of the trips I made to visit Prado priests in various nations. What's more, in Algeria, as in Spain, Italy and Portugal, I heard about those who were (immigrants) in France; I heard the judgements made about France; and, finding myself here, I heard the reactions of the French to our migrant brothers (...).
Personally, I readily acknowledge what I have received from our foreign brothers on the trips I have made to various countries, especially Italy and Spain. On each trip, I learned a lot and received a lot, and I felt the need to say thank you.
Father Ancel gave this testimony on 21 November 1971 at the first Lyon session on "pastoral care for migrants", which he had attended as the person responsible for this pastoral care. At his request, he had been appointed immediately after the Prado International Assembly, which had elected Pierre Berthelon to succeed him after he had completed his fifth term at the head of the Institute. This session had been prepared by his predecessor as delegate for migrants, who had died suddenly the previous July: Antoine Goutagny. So Father Ancel, who had been introduced by Father Goutagny to a particular concern for the young Italians of Gerland in the 1930s, found himself forty years later the heir to a responsibility that Father Goutagny had carried out with great heart and imagination. These two personal traits are also indicative of a wider effort on the part of the Church of France to reach out to the diverse ethnic groups that have succeeded one another on its soil since the last war. In discussing Father Ancel's commitment to this remarkable effort, we must not forget that it is part of a contribution, not insignificant of course, but in solidarity with what preceded and followed him in this field.
Priests at work
Extract (pages 265-263) of Mgr Olivier de Berranger, Alfred Ancel, a man for the Gospel, 1898-1984, Centurion, 1988.
From 8 to 10 June 1965, just as the last session of the Council was about to open, the "Prado Chapter" was held in Caluire.
Father Ancel left Prado de France to Fathers Sabin Saint-Gaudens and Pierre Homery, to devote himself to Prado International. He spoke about "priests at work", saying: "I confess that I would prefer it if we didn't talk about priests-workers. It was never said of Saint Paul that he was a worker-apostle. He was an apostle of Christ, and that was enough for him (...). My conclusion would therefore be this: the priest's presence among people is imposed on him by the very name of his apostolic mission; it is imposed on him in a special way with regard to the poor and all those who are far away; but it must never constitute an option of a temporal nature. Consequently, in our presence among men, and this applies especially to those who obtain permission to work with their hands, we will always act as priests solely oriented towards our mission of salvation and deeply united to a laity that we will help to assume all its responsibilities both in the earthly city and in the Church of God". For its part, the Mission de France held its General Assembly at Pontigny from 30 August to 3 September, where Mgr François Marty told the press, on the subject of priests at work: "The problems posed by this form of apostolate must be studied as seriously as possible with the Mission ouvrière in fidelity to the Church.
It was the same Mgr Marty who ensured that the apostolate of the priest at work was duly mentioned in the Conciliar Decree on the "ministry and life of priests". Finally, on 23 October 1965, the Plenary Assembly of the French Episcopate was held in Rome. It was there that its decision was made public, "to authorise a small number of priests to work full-time in factories and on building sites, after appropriate preparation". On the subject of temporal action, the communiqué gave the following orientation: "Priests at work may join trade unions, but, knowing that temporal tasks belong to militant workers, they will refrain from taking on responsibilities in trade union and political action at any level whatsoever".
During the following year, the group of priests who were to follow this path was formed diocese by diocese, according to criteria established by the Mission ouvrière. An agreement between the latter and the Mission de France was reached on 30 May 1966. On 4 October, a final preparation session for these priests was held at the adult vocations seminary in Morsang-sur-Orge. Father Ancel was asked to lead the retreat.
He began: "I would like to express my joy at seeing you gathered here. We have suffered a great deal, all of us who, in the past, have had to stop our work; but it is a joy for us and an immense hope to see that what was started yesterday will continue tomorrow. No doubt the manner will not be the same, but the profound impetus is the same. Through our priestly presence in the midst of the working world, we want to show them in a concrete way that the whole Church, with its laity and priests, is with them. We also want to bring them the message of Christ, certainly in its entirety, but in such a way that they can understand and accept it. The presence of a sign, the presence of evangelisation, that's what the first priest-workers wanted, and that's what you want too, you who are about to go to work. The second wave follows the first; it's the same flow.
Priests of Prado
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